UTL Uganda Telecom KwikTok Makes Internet More affordable

UTL has an amazing product called KwikTok where you key in a ussd *250# and you get 100mb data, 20 free SMS and 10 minutes of talk. I have been a disgruntled UTL customer since 2003 but nothing has never made me proud of being a UTL customer like KwikTok.

So why am I happy about KwikTok? Well the 100MB of data isn’t a joke. 100MB!!!! for only 250 shillings. If you calculate that for 31 days, that is if you spend 100MB per day that totals to 7750 Shillings. That means you buying 3.1GB for just 7,750 Shillings. Hmmmm Yeaaaaaa. Now that’s sweet. 100MB is enough for you to stay online the whole day and make a couple of skype audio calls. If your to compare it with the major player Orange that am subscribed to for 3G internet 3GB would cost you 85,000 Shillings.

You should be just too crazy to underlook the UTL free internet. This means if your like me and have an old product like Orange 3G internet. You move UTL to higher priority and use Orange Internet when UTL connection is off or extremely slow. That makes you reserve your orange data when you extremely need blazing speed. Not that the UTL internet connection is slow. You can do pretty alot with the UTL connection. Pages load pretty fast and if your crazy like me who is running a proxy on all my machines and my N900 phone then that means better performance. Skype calls using my phone-n900 and laptop are both clear.

Every good thing has some annoying bit. KwikTok data doesn’t go without a negative spot. One thing that pisses me off is when your connected through the phone or your working from the phone and the 100MB is exceeded you don’t get any warning and it automatically switches to using the normal profile of your airtime which is maddly expensive. Coz my phone squashes 4000 in just less than 10minutes when active. You should be aware of this.

How come for me the 100MB works fine the whole day? Actually without doing movies and MP3 downloads, I cannot finish 100MB! Also, I am told that if you want to do some serious downloading, say 500MB, then load about shs. 1,500/= and load kwiktok numerous times, your data package shall keep increasing by 100MB everytime you load kwiktok! But, it all runs out at end of day!

Depending on your internet usage patterns, 100MB may be small or big. It doesn’t need you to be downloading mp3 or movies to finish 100mb. For example me I use an N900 which has 100% browser capability that pulls the entire site because some sites can’t recognise it as a phone to switch to mobile version. Then since I have debian packages installed from dev repo, I tend to have to request updates frequently. Though thats not big enough to finish 100MB. But I use the phone as the 3G modem, the whole day. Minimum I use a day is 200MB just data. A lot is taken up by remote desktop, remote source control server. But still its the cheapest.

Depending on your phone model, you will have to follow instructions for your phone model to be able to get access to the modem via Bluetooth or USB/Serial cable. Me personally I use nokia pc suite and the connection is via Bluetooth or USB depending on the available free USB ports. The phone number you have to use when setting up the connection is *99# or *99**1#

thanks Joseph for the reply. but how can i exactly remove the simcard and put it into my modem and access the free internet using my modem?if yes.what exactly can i do. i don’t have a Nokia phone. my friend does it on MTN. he subscribes to mobile internet (for handset) and removes his simcard and inserts it in the phone and accesses internet that was originally meant for cellphone .we tried doing it with the utl(kwik tok) but it failed. can you help please

of course my modem is a 3g not yet unlocked(warid) but the easier it will be to access the free kwiktok through a modem(that is if i can get sufficient assurance from other people doing the same arrangment) the more i will be drawm towards unlocking it

Compared to the value I get for 250/=, I think the speed is enough. Of course you can’t compare it like to orange which is in a different league. If I can skype, read mails, GOOGLE, and be able to download files upto 7MB with no big hustle, then it pretty works. It has its downsides like often disconnecting, but if you set the connection to redial automatically when line is dropped you hardly notice it. And your right sometimes its too slow. For the period I have been using it, its sometimes just slow, or am not in Kampala, and recently they where making some internal hardware upgrades. Overall personally am happy with the 100MB for 250/= trade.

i unlocked my orange modem and put a utl sim then downloaded mobile partner which gives you the interface of a real phone so i load A.T and activate K.T pretty conviniently from the unlocked modem.i hope utl can upgrade so we get better speed out of kwik tok but others wise its cool.

why is this so slow ? I’m using huwaei ideos u8150 as a modem via usb tethering and the APN I use is utwap.3g , utweb and utwap seem slower , when I use orange I get upto 500 kb/s but with UTL its merely 30 -38 kb/s at most, are there any tweaks or hacks to increase this speed , I mean if these guys are caping the bandwidth of kiwitalk subscribers there should be a way of bypassing it right ? I’ve read on some forum ( I cant remember the URL) Orange- HSDPA 7.2 mb/s
MTN – HSDPA 3.8 mb/s
UTL(lousy)-HSDPA 1.8 mb/s ! seriously?? but even with this I should have fast internet access ! because my phone has HSDPA 7.2 ! any recommendations ? or maybe hacking into their servers would suffice!

If you talk of 100mb of internet package consider the speed also, there is nothing that disappoints like utl internet. If you a kind of person who normally downloads heavy file from the net at anytime not early in the morning at 3am consider mtn & orange though they’re expensive but there the best. Make a choice now & don’t get disappoint like i was before seeing the light thanks

Nice post.. I think UTL has the best rate, but if you may notice.. Torrents don’t work at all-freaks blocked the torrents!!. Its freaking annoying! I mean we want more bandwidth to download stuff that we like.. Whats the point? Furthermore, the connection keeps breaking, u have to watch your downloads all day long.. annoying again

On hearing about Kwik-Tok, I rashed to join UTL hoping to have reliable internet connections for a cheap. I was disappoint of three major things:- 1. It is always disconnecting, 2. It is slow, I can’t even watch a youtube video without waiting for 5 minutes. 3. It doesn’t notify you when it’s used up instead it flicks eat up on your credit reserved for calls.
I called customer care and I was told their internet disconnects because of voice traffic which is just too much. Therefore was told to embark on the monthly 3G data through a data sim card. It’s only 85000/= for unlimited data bundle. Hey, guys has anybody ever used it before, if yes how reliable and fast is it before I spend my bucks on it.

With UTL I have tried the Internet of that company and I find it always annoying. Imagine I tried to save by using moonlight of sh.60,0000/= from 7pm to 7am. Well sometimes it will be off till past midnight and other days it will be off completely two days. And this is land-line which would be affected by any down pour or wind or branches of trees or the phone burns out. Imagine being awake the whole night to finish up some work and download some. The next day you are sleepy at place of work.I bought Celtel/Zain /Airtel modem at sh.55,000/= or so cheap at that time but the problem if the bundles finished after 5pm ,nowhere you can load on from.Not even on weekends. Very inconveniencing .I opened it started using it for WARID. The warid network is poor in some locations and would be off and on moreover at sh.60,000/= per month. That was also un fair for me .When we had NOKIA PC suite and would surf for unlimited hours for only sh 100/= using my nokia phone on MTN network. They changed the settings that cannot work any more .May be someone there knows the recent settings of MTN which can be used for free Internet surfing.
I bought the ORANGE 7.2mb/s modem but the cost drove me off though they have a fantastic speed that you really enjoy the benefits of the high price.
UTL kwik tok 100mb for 24hours expires at midnight and is as slow as a snail. changing the sim card from the phone to the unlocked modem is very annoying after parting with sh.250/= for the 100mb and the phone jams to work requesting for a data bundle.It would be the cheapest but its speed is the worst. Now I get to understand that they all work the same .Don’t be joyful when you get 100MB of UTL at 250/= ,its like 10MB for 1000/= of orange and 20MB of sh.500/= of MTN and 50MB of sh. 500/= of warid.I hope you get what I mean. Inverse proportionality

jack, yo right about the kwik tok stuff. it used to be perfect when i was using this Apn: utwap.3g but now with this utweb i feel like am surfing the web page using a snail ride and yet am having a universal huawei E303 model modem which runs at the speed of 7.2mbps, can u imagine the network signal to be in EDGE.

In Kenya safaricom unlimited Internet is only 3000KShs which is equivalent to 95000UGX.
So you can imagine how Uganda’S 2G and 3G data providers are unfair. They don’t even offer free calls between callers on the same network which is available in many countries.

Orange did offer at the time the cheapest yet favorable speeds at 0.1UGX per KB Internet and Gyekiri where orange to orange calls were 0UGX a campaign which was affordable and favorable to almost everyone in the country.

Uganda Communications Commission came in with their price regulatory rules which destroyed the whole idea. I think the decision was totally wrong and off topic. Yes, it’s right for UCC save us from that war which was among telecom companies but it had to regulate calls routed to a third party not on the same network.

I realize the move somehow leads to a big loss. An example is a person watches youtube for the case of self study, a person like me. I was about to enroll for an online data recovery course but how would when data charges are not affordable yet I don’t even have a sufficient source income. I think their rules didn’t only affect me but many other geniuses out there. Why do other countries develop at such a very fast rate, it’s all about how they implement their laws. It’s all about the how they protect their fellow citizen.

Look at online payments, people in U.K, Canada and U.S.A, South Africa can sell or buy goods/services and get paid or pay almost everywhere on this planet but a Ugandan can not. We are claiming job scarcity but how would they(the jobs) be available when a person like me and my colleagues registered a company in 2010 but we are still struggling for sufficient funds to run the business. In Rwanda the government makes this easy by standardizing quite a number of costs and help it’s citizens to start jobs. But in Uganda, I hear people are even cheated in the process of registering a business or a company.

In other-words as some nations are protecting their citizen from fraud and unfair costs of products and services, other like ours the governing institutions and ministries are pulling it to other side in the favor of those who already have. If I may say, all of those participating in cheating and being unfair to us(the Ugandans) this won’t last for long.

Uganda is a country for all of us so if you come to invest here bear in mind that you’ve not come to constrain but you came for a fair profit share in return for the quality of services or products. We know we are not aware of how much and how it all goes but don’t take advantage of the situation, instead be a master who loves to teach and make others aware otherwise in a short of period you’ll be long forgotten.

This message is reserved to all the Companies in the country please Uganda is not only Kampala. Uganda is more than 100 districts your support and services are missed so much everywhere in the nation. Don’t sign agreements to fulfill your individuals goals we all expect the best once we learn that you’re offered a license to service in our beloved nation – Uganda. For GOD and My COUNTRY.

Wi-free no longer works for me for about a month and a half.
Have tried a number of port combinations and it has failed. It used to be 80 and 53.
Can you guide on which port combinations or settings that work?

From Here. its still utweb and utwap. Rarely use Kwiktok on PC except on phone. Pakasurf of warid (100MB = 1000Shs Good 3G speeds) is a good alternative though unstable. If you go pakasurf I advise you to use google dns servers 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 instead of the ones supplied by warid.

thx jose, may i know the best internet providers for business that are reliable(always connected) but cheap). i hear utl is ok but get disconncted, waht other providers u know. i repeat i want for buzness 9internet cafe)

I can not give you advice about the best internet service provider choice for an internet cafe, but I can tell you my opinion about personal internet options from those service providers. As service providers get more customers, their level of service (speed) degrades that’s why personally Orange now comes second to MTN. In the order of how I percieve them because I use all service providers apart from IN. The order is most I recommend to least recommended.

MTN
ORANGE and Warid
Zain
UTL

Warid DNS servers are slow and sometimes don’t respond timely, so I use the google DNS servers 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4

From a friend who uses IN, it is a good service provider if your within good range of their transmitters. for example here in Naalya their service is not motivating yet around bukoto its speeds are good.

Zain speeds are generally slow compared to what I would expect from them. The reason I put Zain above UTL is because their wireless speeds via a 3G modem are better than UTL.

These opinions are mine from usage experience in town. Don’t know much about outside Kampala.

Add cost into perspective then my choice for a cafe would be IN if am around the center of Kampala. MTN and Orange are other alternatives. These are my opinions. Best information can be got from walking into a cafe in your area and find out the service provider they use and quality of service.

Airtel stopped working a week ago with wi-free. Currently the Airtel speeds have greatly improved. Using tsup you load 1000 Shs and dial *151# then you will have about 500MB free. The 1.5GB advertised I have never go it. When its finished to subscribe again you opt out from the *100# menu and dial *151# to subscribe again. I think Airtel tsup is the cheap option and speeds have greatly improved better than a week ago when wi-free was working on it.

Thanx Jose 4 ur elaborate information. I live in the West (in Ibanda town, Ibanda district).
Recently I had my orange modem unlocked and tried a UTL sim card in it. Everytime I try to
connect to internet I am told the connection with the remote controller cannot be established. What do you think this means? I have failed to connect!

Thanx Jose 4 ur elaborate information. I live in the West (in Ibanda town, Ibanda district).
Recently I had my orange modem unlocked and tried a UTL sim card in it. Everytime I try to
connect to internet I am told the connection with the remote computer cannot be established.
What does this mean you think? I am desparate to connect to UTL internet.

Which application are you using to connect? If your using mobile partner make sure the APN name is set to that of UTL. If your still using Orange application you will need to switch to mobile partner or other software where you can specify the APN.

guys, is there more than one manual setting for my android htc phone for utl internet connection coz my connection is slow and on and off..? and for some reason its only using edge, i have never seen a signal for 3g internet. what is the problem